Sachin de Silva
Artist in Residence – 2025
Sachin de Silva is an experimental electronic sound artist.
His sounds fall anywhere between drone, noise, minimalism and defragmented club music. Rooted in computational complexity and semi-stochastic processes, sonic materials are derived from both modular synthesis and Max/MSP. Delicate and essential, nothing here is stable. Every fragile texture and tone emerges from the mangled convergence of synthetic and organic sound.
How did you first get involved with synths and electronic sound?
When I was a small child, growing up on a beach of far-north Queensland, I used to creep out onto the roof at night and watch the stars flickering above the water. The sound of the moon was the sound of the tides; my first, most intimate experience of something infinite and eternal.
The world has always felt to me like a secret orchestra. And, in some way or another, I’ve always held a desire to explore this. But it was only much more recently that I came to work with synthesis and sound. Before all of this I completed studies in Physics and then Anthropology. It took me a long time (and many drastic pivots) to finally realise that, for me, sound is the truest expression of life.
This understanding was made possible entirely by MESS. Stepping away from a world of abstracted thought and into a world of pure sound, I began obsessively trying all sorts of machines in the studio. I remember that initial period of discovery with much nostalgia and gratitude.
Working as a sound artist is the first thing I’ve ever attempted which feels wholly me, or, in other words, completely true.
How would you describe the sounds you make today?
I probably wouldn’t. But if coerced I might say that I hope to make music that can’t be described, only felt, embodied. People can be stubbornly cerebral. I hope to inspire movement, in motion.
Where do you find inspiration, what motivates you?
My inspiration is drawn from my own internal philosophy of human experience. Â
Central to this is an understanding of the self as an illusion. The two great deconstructionist writers Fernando Pessoa and Clarice Lispector understood this deeply. The ‘gradual deheroization of oneself’ through a radical embracing of the non-self is an idea which runs throughout their works. Our deepest interior essence consists only of ephemeral abstract mental phenomena, continually emerging from a great silent emptiness.
Sound has always shown me just how riveting that ‘emptiness’ can feel. And so, in my practice I do not attempt to express any ‘self’ at all. I hope instead to encapsulate more universalistic expressions of life.
This sort of aesthetic ideal orients itself towards technically complex modes of electronic synthesis. Through digital programming environments such as Max/MSP, I’m able to create sounds and arrangements that transcend the imaginary of propositional composition.
My approach feels more like a gentle guiding of processes and artefacts. Sometimes it is a subject-less experience, moving quite without my own willing.
What’s been one of the most rewarding or satisfying moments of your journey so far?
Last year I was given the opportunity to perform for Omniversal Hum. This felt like an important milestone in my journey as a sound artist. It was the first time I had shared sounds which felt authentic to my aesthetic philosophy, which is to say that they expressed something of life.
And the most challenging?
I think that our identities are formed in discourse. Before I had anyone to talk to about any of this, or anyone looking, or anyone to tell me that what I was doing was any good, or worthwhile at all, before I played any gigs; that was the most challenging part. It took me a while to realise that I didn’t start thinking of myself as a musician until someone else called me one first.
Do you have a current ‘go to’ set up at MESS? Any favourite machines or combos that you’re currently digging?
I’ve been enjoying revisiting the Black and Gold Make Noise eurorack system (which was definitely my first love at MESS). It’s a beautiful machine that merges organic and synthetic sound.
Are there any machines in the MESS collection you’ve had your eye on but haven’t tried yet?
If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you first started what would it be?
Sachin de Silva performs at MESS Residents Reveal
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Time: Doors at 7pm
Venue: Miscellania
